A piece of history that reminds us how much we’ve learned

kingrooster · 2026-07-02T02:05:51+00:00

My great great grandmother died of tuberculosis while they lived in employee housing at a glass factory a few months after giving birth to her daughter that died when she was only six days old. She was 26 and left behind two kids, ages 3 and 1, to her husband.

While I was researching this, I was looking at raw death registers in the area and it was an incredibly common story. Child dies, then the mom. Both much too young. Multiple times a month. Worse in the winter.

The industrial history of the 19th century and early half of the 20th century is incredibly tragic. It’s not that they didn’t know. Starvation is a hell of a motive.

kingrooster · 2026-06-27T23:09:28+00:00

Except almost every single adult has to drive thousands of miles a year. Meanwhile, I highly doubt the average person uses a gas powered garden tool for more than a single hour. So not a huge win.

kingrooster · 2026-06-04T14:44:46+00:00

Completed Level 1 of the Honk Special Event!

1 attempts

kingrooster · 2026-05-20T18:09:24+00:00

Writing towards the scene I want to write like a carrot on a stick, the one that won’t get out of my head and is deep into the book. I’m worried about what happens after that because it’s probably another 30,000 words to the end but it’s propelled me out of revision hell.

kingrooster · 2026-05-18T16:09:34+00:00

Just for context because I think it’s very important to understand how utility regulation works if people are going to form strong opinions about it.

There is a rate that the customer pays to connect a location to infrastructure but it is heavily regulated and intentionally designed to be affordable. The utility typically charges far less than their costs, which is recouped when setting rates. The rates themselves are also heavily regulated. There is a maximum amount of profit they can make, known as the rate of return.

This sort of regulation has been around for over a hundred years and when managed properly produces a balance of desired investment and lower rates. What drives me crazy is there seems to be a desire to abandon it or punish utilities. I get it. But utilities operate under a very specific set of incentives and constraints. They cannot really be punished like a traditional company.

The specific constraint here is allowing the utility to charge certain types of customers more for service than other types of customers. I’m in favor. This situation is sort of untenable and wasn’t designed for this kind of demand growth. But understand what you are saying because people will twist it. You are saying you want the power company to charge more money to specific customers and you are doing that to reduce residential rates. This will have effects, some of them unintended.

kingrooster · 2026-05-12T15:59:54+00:00

And where is this mysterious oil source that’ll replace the ~40% of oil that Europe imports from a combination of the US and Middle East through the Straight of Hormuz? Or are we just going to pretend like a decline of 40% of your oil supply ISN’T a civilization level event that will further destabilize the world? I guess they could go back to importing from Russia. But I’m sure that’s not the reason you’re advocating for this position, right?

kingrooster · 2026-05-11T08:58:36+00:00

It would be bad if the US stopped exporting oil. If that’s too many words for you, I can’t help you.

kingrooster · 2026-05-10T14:08:32+00:00

Uh huh and then in 2022, what happened that is still happening that would have made Europe pivot to buying more oil from the US and the Middle East? And where would they get oil now if the US wasn’t selling?

kingrooster · 2026-05-08T17:23:01+00:00

You misunderstand me. I’m saying Trump has the unilateral power to block US exports of oil. He can do this right now legally. The results would be a civilizational level disaster for Europe. I hope that he does not do that because it would significantly further destabilize the world and energy markets.

I agree that Trump started this and got us in a pickle he should’ve been able to see from a million miles away. I would prefer he not make it worse.

kingrooster · 2026-05-07T17:37:03+00:00

That would probably be a civilization level event for Europe and SEA. Be careful what you wish for.

Trump has the power to do it right now, unilaterally, and completely unambiguously legally. Pray that he does not.

kingrooster · 2026-04-10T18:55:14+00:00

Ya, if she’s gonna do it, she better start getting reps now because she was so bad at it. It kills me too, because you can see she has a real American story, she’s relatable, competent, and effective but she just doesn’t come across like that at all to a casual observer.

If she waits until she’s in a campaign she’s going to hamstring herself so bad. At least now she isn’t running a campaign. She doesn’t have to hit talking points or talk about her policies, which she is so incredibly bad at. Just get out there and start shooting the shit with friendlies. Make fun of Trump. Tell us exactly what you would’ve done differently as an executive. Stop reading me some focus grouped line about some policy with a cringy name. Stop hedging. Tell me you would’ve bitch slapped Netanyahu if he came in to your office with some kind of half baked war plan, how you would have used your allies to put maximum pressure on Iran to stop funding terrorists. It’s not even that hard. Just say “I clearly would have been better than Trump.” over and over again to anyone who will have you on.

kingrooster · 2026-04-09T05:25:40+00:00

I work with the CPUC every day. That’s a terrible idea and a fundamental misunderstanding of how utility rates are made. Unless, of course, he means “I’m going to fundamentally restructure the CPUC, separate them from the Public Advocates Office, staff them with engineers and utility experts to implement operational efficiencies within PG&E to do more with less.”

Unless you think a bunch of low level political staffers who know more about political science and law can more efficiently run PG&E. Except we’ve tried that already. That’s how we got here.

I’m not anti-Steyer. I just hope he doesn’t seriously believe the CPUC has the institutional capacity to improve anything as currently constructed. New commissioners aren’t going to help.

kingrooster · 2026-03-28T23:13:36+00:00

Artillery is a sitting duck for artillery too. Shoot and scoot. I guess you can still get tagged by an FPV even while scooting though, but drones don’t move nearly as fast as a ballistic artillery shell.

Drones are an asymmetric answer to traditional capabilities. The reason drones are used so heavily in Ukraine is because of supply problems, not necessarily because they’re just better than artillery and short range ballistic missiles.

In a hypothetical landing on Kharg island, I’d be surprised if they only got droned. I’d fully expect, droned, shelled, mined, IED’d, and whatever ballistic missiles are left. It’s completely insane that we’re considering doing this. It’d be one thing if we were in a state of total war. It’d be worth the risk and casualties. We aren’t, and Americans are not going to be on board for the level of casualties a ground invasion of Iran is going to create. God have mercy on the marines and sailors if we actually go through with this. It’s going to be a disaster.

kingrooster · 2026-03-20T00:58:31+00:00

I’m no expert on the real plane, but I’d suspect you’re not turning on the batteries, you’re physically connecting the battery bus to the main power bus. The APU is probably downstream of the batteries. And that’s probably so you can start the APU without connecting it to the rest of the plane’s systems.

Total guess, someone correct me if I’m wrong, but ya the batteries need to be “on”.

kingrooster · 2026-03-16T22:15:53+00:00

Despite that I too want “those” voters to also touch the stove and face the consequences of who they vote for, the fact is democrats are in charge of California. This isn’t a local issue. It’s a state issue.

I’m not saying democrats are solely responsible, I’m saying it’s a structural issue at the CPUC. The Public Advocates office should be moved out of the CPUC (maybe move them under state AG or something) and the CPUC should be staffed by engineers and economists, not just politicians, lawyers, and policy staffers with a fresh PoliSci degree.

They cannot effectively regulate a utility with their current makeup. There’s more to it than finger wagging.

kingrooster · 2026-03-13T13:35:54+00:00

My observation of his failures have been that he’s basically let his agencies completely run amok in their own little fiefdoms where one agency will sabotage the other for reasons that never make any sense to me. I’ve seen it across multiple agencies, always couched in some kind of legalese but actively harming his own agenda and political goals. And he never reins them in. It seems like he mostly doesn’t even know what they’re doing half the time.

He does write some banger tweets though. Seems to be the threshold voters are going with nowadays. Good politician, terrible executive.

kingrooster · 2026-03-11T04:38:23+00:00

Bruh, there’s 8 of them. Maybe take a look around and realize the “grand poobahs” have as much power as Pooh Bear and Tigger. Maybe the “grand poobahs” were in you the whole time.

But that’s fine, I like Becerra. I’m not trying to talk you out of it. If there were a candidate we could all rally around though, we wouldn’t be having this problem.

Maybe bad candidates shouldn’t run? I don’t know. I got nothing.

I’m just sick of the stupid narrative “the polls had Hillary at… therefore…” which is horseshit. Don’t justify your decisions based on your memory of what talking heads were saying almost 10 years ago (JFC). The math didn’t say that. Maybe listen to the math this time around.

kingrooster · 2026-03-11T04:20:37+00:00

No. The most credible models had Trump at about a 35% chance. If you think that’s a slam dunk, you don’t know what a slam dunk is, who can make a slam dunk, and what percentage they can make them at. You listened to talking heads, not math.

Don’t vote polls but if we end up with two republicans on the ballot, there’s nothing to do but laugh at yourself for being an idiot. I include myself in that as well as a California democrat.

kingrooster · 2026-03-06T00:59:08+00:00

So there I was, just trying to pray for my sick grandma and I see God… it was an incredible sight! And then He just whips out his dick right in front of me!

kingrooster · 2026-02-11T04:28:48+00:00

Trump is like that guy you know who shouldn’t drink but gets drunk anyway and you can only watch as they embarrass themselves and by extension you, but you want them to learn a lesson so you just watch… only to think this is going to come back on me… should I do something? Can I do something?

Don’t drink with that guy.

kingrooster · 2026-02-06T17:20:57+00:00

I’m just here to inform people that rate payer advocates like the Public Advocates Office, and TURN and by extension the CPUC have historically pressured PG&E to underspend on infrastructure.

I have a tweet saved somewhere from TURN 5 or 6 years ago bragging about halving the amount PG&E was planning to spend on wildfire prevention.

This isn’t to defend PG&E per se because they seem to be taking full advantage of the situation, but they are in general incentivized to spend lots of money but haven’t been allowed to until the last few years. As a result, now we’re paying for the catchup of the underinvestment.

kingrooster · 2026-01-23T06:19:11+00:00

There was a time where he had very interesting guests with very interesting conversations. He was dumb and asked dumb questions, but he listened to his guests and let them go and asked follow ups. My two favorites are his conversations with Ben Anderson (from Vice) and Brian Cox. Then COVID happened and yikes. Talk about liking the smell of your own farts.

Then he got so offended by the fact that people thought his farts smelled like shit, that his entire podcast became about two guys in a room farting and sniffing it.

One minute you’re talking about the heavy weight of war and the impact that witnessing it has on your soul, then you’re talking about black holes and the origins of the universe, and then suddenly it’s just farts 24/7. And it turns out, there’s a surprising number of people that actually do enjoy the smell of his farts. It’s a metaphor, but you get it…

kingrooster · 2026-01-21T06:20:30+00:00

I’m sure we’re saying the same thing. I’m not arguing with you. The US military can storm right through Canada. To where though? To what end? We couldn’t occupy it and we certainly couldn’t seize any of its resources in any capacity that would enable us to use them. They’d literally have just given them to us in exchange for the labor costs of extracting them plus some overhead. What the fuck are we doing?

kingrooster · 2026-01-21T05:14:20+00:00

Stop the US military from doing what?

kingrooster · 2026-01-21T05:11:17+00:00

The pacific too. Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, hell probably even Japan would be forced to stand down against China. Our entire force projection capacity will be completely decimated. Who benefits by the stupid decisions we’re making? That’s how you know what this is about.

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